Christmas Necessities

[YouShouldSeeMeInACrown]

Hi,

Sorry if there is another thread already on this subject (and an extra sorry for posting when there's still 3 months to go but I'm trying to be prepared this year )..

What are your necessities for Christmas? I'm talking mainly about food and drink but happy to hear about any other necessities such as board games, Christmas CD's etc!

Thanks!

TwigTheWonderKid

Mint sauce 73kittycat73 ?!

I love it on veg and roast potatoes, it's a part of my roast dinner.

Proper pjs and a bucket of sweets for the toy show.
Marzipan soaked in whiskey.
1 ridiculously overpriced candle.
Seeing everyone.
Smiles.
The Royle Family specials 😁

Asthmatic duck....🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

A delicious , half glazed/half crispy crackling mahoosive roast gammon on the 23rd Dec eaten with friends.

Chinese takeaway on Christmas Eve.

New pajamas for us all.

Christmas bedding all of December- beds must be changed on 23rd/24th ( got a gorgeous new dormer tartan brushed cotton duvet set I can’t wait to use!)

Mince pie, scotch and a carrot for Santa and the reindeer.

A new jumper for the dog and lots of new toys for her.

A Felt covered ‘ bucket’ that looks like Santa’s jacket/belt , with a handle which is filled with hero’s and quality street that we keep by the front door - everybody who knocks in December (delivery drivers, postie, friends, carol singers etc) gets offered a sweety.

We have to watch Elf at least twice , home alone once and the snowman on Christmas Eve.........

....followed by the live tv Carols from Kings College.

Michael Buble Christmas cd. (MIne)
James Browns Have a funky Christmas ( husbands)
Now that’s what I call Xmas ( DD).

Crackers ( for cheese and for pulling)
Lots of homemade goodies - chutney, pickles, sloe gin, Christmas berry liquor, chocolate bark, fruits in liqueur..........yum bloody yum!

Three days of decorating house.

Two days of moaning and cleaning when I take it all down.
And of course, my Christmas planner folder without which Christmas could not happen in this house!

And......of course, now I want an asthmatic duck too!!

I don’t know if anybody noticed but I’m a bit obsessive about Christmas and have cut my initial post by at least 50% as I was scared it wouldn’t fit on the page

A turkey and a ham + all the trimmings. A full gorgeous British cheeseboard (extra points for Black sticks blue and fig conserve).
Hotel chocolat.
Buck's Fizz
Baileys
Chocolate oranges
Lots of prosecco and brandy

Quality street (in a tin not the tiny plastic tubs)

Where are they though!

Oh and jugs of cranberry sauce, pavlova, the ultimate Disney soundtrack and anyone's babies

The biggest dinner with all the trimmings. Veggie version for me.
Raspberry Meringue Roulade.
Lots of fizz.
All the cheese!
A real tree x2.
Xmas magic on the radio, everyday.
White company candle.
Homemade festive biscuits.
Mistletoe by the door.
Stockings full of prezzies for the dogs.
New pj’s.
Planning the Christmas dinner table, crackers, holly, candles etc.
Radio times.
Making my own Christmas wreath.
The Christmas Day dog walk in the woods.
Christmas Day outfit.
Writing out the Christmas cards.

Cheese and interesting crackers.
I don't buy "traditional " xmas food such as turkey, cake, mince pies...but happily eat my weight with about 20 cheeses and chutney.

Doesn't everyone have crispy asthmatic duck with pancakes over Xmas?

Yeah you can make your regular Xmas cake recipe and bake them in washed out (doh!) and lined baked beans tins. I suggest the half size cans are what you want. The cooking time is determined empirically but it will be less (I cook low and slow)

@marciebluebell RE quality street in a tin. You have to have a good hunt for them. Last year I found mine in Waitrose. And this year I got mine from Booths (I'm up north) cost me £7 but Im going to use the tin to replace my battered previous quality street tin from years ago that I use as me biscuit tin 🤣

Most already mentioned, but def. Carols from King's on Chr. Eve, with proper mulled wine and mince pies. It's not Christmas for me without it.

Home made Chr. Puds - with a sprig of holly stuck in - don't like the shop ones, too dense and heavy. Flamed with a good slosh of brandy 50/50 with vodka, dining room lights turned off before I bring it to the table in all its flaming glory.
Brandy butter with puds.
Large piece of gammon, with a marmalade/mustard/allspice glaze, cooked on Chr, Eve - the smell is so Christmassy.
Always a real tree, with assorted non-stylish decorations, some going back forever.
Father Christmas filling a stocking for everyone in the house, regardless of age.
Gallons of Buck's Fizz with fresh orange juice of Chr. Day, even if this means I'm a bit pissed by the time I'm getting dinner on the table around 5 pm.

Home cooked gammon and turkey, Yorkshire puddings also homecooked pigs in blankets, roasties, bread sauce. Homemade gravy.
Home made Xmas pud served with clotted cream and also custard

Breakfast is salmon and scrambled eggs with toast

We all have stockings my OH does my stocking and we do them for our 3 daughters ( 26/25/21 none of whom live with us) and my FIL who is 93 . When I met my OH he and his dad didn't even have a Xmas tree. That year I got a tree and did stockings for them both and the smile on his dads face was huge...he's been a widower for 25 years and he said I'd forgotten how much fun Christmas could be

I started doing Devils on Horseback alongside the pigs in blankets a couple of years ago.
They are now more anticipated than the pigs themselves.

miniature Christmas cakes
For whoever was asking.
Make sure that the tins are lined inside and out.
Tip: use a 200g bean tin with a ring pull at one end and a proper rim at the other. Use the ring pull end to take the beans out.
Wash the tin well. Use a tin opener to open the non-ring pull end, then you can drop the circle you have just cut out into the ring pull end (which has a little rim) to make a loose bottom tin. Do not be tempted to try and get the cake out of the end with the little rim: that way madness lies!
We make these with my Brownies. Good fun: it takes a whole 1.5 hour meeting for each girl to grease and wrap one tin and put in the batter.

For the miniature Christmas cakes, we do similar for miniature panattone in bean tins. Perfect for gifts!

My must haves; Cherry Brandy, a huge roast dinner with all the trimmings, Christmas PJ's and bedding.

M&S Christmas spice room spray & candle
Choc Yule log for Xmas eve
Clemintines
Mulled wine
Baileys

Cheese
More cheese
Even more cheese
Some crackers to act as transportation for all the cheeses
A nice chutney

After 8s

Home made mince pies
Large Toblerone
Christmas cake
Wensleydale with cranberries
Brie
Sherry trifle (with loads of sherry!)

Mm making my mouth water.
Yorkshireyummymummy love the idea of bucket for everyone offered a sweetie. I'm going to copy that this year.
This meansnothing I use mine to store Christmas ornament wrapped in tissue or bubble wrap then put them in a big green box. Also like Booths for Black Dub cheese mmm. They also have a delicate smoked side of salmon or trout which is gorgeous lightly cooked in a parcel with some lemon slices and a little black pepper. I cooked this for some people last year and they still talk about it mmmm.

Gammon on Christmas Eve with pineapple, brown sugar and cloves.
Turkey with all the trimmings and lots of veg and roasties. I love Devils on horseback but no one else does. Love Angels too mum used to make them both.
Prawns must be King. Do them differently.
Good breakfast to keep going.
Mass on Christmas Eve and sometimes Christmas Day as well.
No cooking on Boxing Day.

A Christmas jigsaw puzzle which is usually started Christmas Eve. I collected most of The Twelve Days of Christmas. So we sometimes redo one of those.
A walk on Boxing Day.

@BarryTheKestrel may I ask you for your pannetone recipe ? Miniature ones would be heaven!

Also love the @yorkshireyummymummy idea of having bucket of sweets by the door. Might make me feel a bit better about all the December Amazon deliveries!!

I'm putting loo roll and kitchen towels on the list.

Yes, yes , they're essential all year but at Christmas:

The Snowman looroll/kitchen roll (usually Aldi or Wilko)
M&S looroll with the silver stars or the polar bears.

I start on Dec 1st and keep on all through December .

Lots of things mentioned but dark chocolate Elizabeth Shaw mints.